sumplug
Established member
As coupe's go, Vickster's one is an absolute spot on example.As from following her posts on fccuk it's possible to see the cars history.
Also as you say picking up a light damaged example can save you loads. This is what I did.
Work wise they are not too bad to work on. I did a clutch on mine and other than being a bit more time consuming found it very straight forward despite all the horror stories I had been hearing. Several people have done there own cambelts. The best way I can see is to undo the driveshafts from the hubs unbolt the engine mounts and using a hoist move the engine over. This will give tons of room. if the worst came to the worst dropping the subframe, (8 or so bolts) would allow the gear box to go in to the wheel arch to give nearly a foot of space.
Well doing the cambelt is like you say, but one word of warning, the engine must only be moved slightly. Moving the engine puts stress on the hydraulics and ive seen several cars later with leaks due to this [inc bravo and marea] when the pipes were stretched.
Talking of clutches, when the belt is changed for the second time at 72k [always change the belt no later then 36k on the turbo], its adviceable to do the clutch at the same time. The engine is tilted up one way and then the other to access both ends. Clutches tend to go around 90-100k but will last a lot longer if mainly motorway driving. Enthusiastic driving will wear the clutch in half the time though!!
Andy.
